End Game

by Lindsay Buroker

  Chapter 27

  After spending an excrutiating amount of time in Alejandro’s makeshift decontamination room—which involved sanibox curtains and buckets rather than bulkheads and fancy medical equipment—Alisa finally escaped and fled to NavCom. She wanted to check on Jelena and Thorian, then pace back and forth in sickbay while Alejandro examined Leonidas, but she didn’t think Mica had flown the Nomad completely out of the battle zone yet. She needed to make sure everyone was safe before giving in to her own desires. Besides, Leonidas hadn’t looked like he would be waking up any time soon. After Alejandro had brought the remote for his armor, he, Beck, and Abelardus had worked together to pull him out of it and haul him to sickbay. Leonidas had been breathing, which had Alisa sending prayers of thanks to the suns, but Alejandro had only shaken his head grimly when she questioned him about his condition.

  “You sure took your time, didn’t you?” Mica growled, switching from the pilot’s seat to the co-pilot’s seat when Alisa entered.

  “It’s good to see you alive too.” Alisa slid into her seat and frowned at what the view screen showed—a close-up of the belly of an Alliance warship. “I thought you would move the ship away from the fighting.”

  “I thought I would, too, but that ugly asteroid molester swooped in and locked a grab beam onto us.”

  Alisa scanned the console and verified that they were, indeed, being held. The sensors showed several other Alliance ships around them. Close around them. If Hawk was in charge, Alisa and her crew might be able to talk their way out of the situation. But if Hawk had been on one of those warships that blew up, and that Admiral Agosti was in charge… She winced.

  The mafia ships showed up on the sensors at a farther distance. Most of them seemed to be retreating. They must have finally figured out that their fearless nutcase of a leader was gone. One of the larger ships remained, Henneberry’s yacht, but it was almost on top of another mafia ship. No, it was on top of it. The two ships must have crashed during the action. It was hard to imagine a pilot as skilled as Tomich accidentally crashing, so maybe that had been deliberate, a way to take the yacht out of the action.

  “Have they commed us yet?” Alisa asked, waving at the warship dominating the view screen.

  “Not yet. They just want to hold us and snuggle with us.”

  “We are snuggly.”

  Mica wrinkled her nose. “You smell like blood, sweat, and explosives.”

  “So… not snuggly?”

  “Maybe your cyborg would think so—he has unique tastes.”

  “He has excellent tastes.”

  The comm flashed, and Alisa slapped it without hesitating. Even if it was Agosti, it would be better to know what he wanted than to dangle here forever.

  But it turned out to be an internal channel. “Captain,” Alejandro said.

  “I hope you’re going to tell me that Leonidas is awake, Thorian is well, and everyone else came through the battle unscathed, including the chickens.”

  “I was going to tell you that I have your special cocktail prepared. You probably don’t want to assume that your mutated genes will protect you from all that radiation, especially if you’re planning to have more children.”

  “No, I look forward to your cocktail.”

  Mica’s nose wrinkled again. “Did you forget how much puking was involved with his last cocktail?”

  “Dole them out for everyone on the ship, Doctor,” Alisa said. She hoped that most of her people had been protected by being within the Nomad, which had been within the mining ship for much of the time, but they didn’t need to take chances. “And also give me an update on Leonidas and Thorian.”

  “Physically, Thorian will be fine once he gets rehydrated and gets some food in him. Mentally, I don’t know. He’s not talking about what they did to him. He’s not talking at all. Abelardus said he was locked in a box when you found him?”

  “Yeah. No idea if Tymoteusz was tormenting him in any way or was just ignoring him. They were making an android replica, presumably to replace him for some kind of scheme.”

  Alejandro swore. “I don’t know what kind of emotional scars his time over there will leave on him. I’m not a counselor.”

  “That’s an understatement,” Mica muttered.

  “He’s more the reason people need counselors,” Alisa said.

  “Aren’t you supposed to mute the comm when you’re talking poorly about someone?” Alejandro asked.

  “Why? You don’t do it when you talk poorly about me. Update on Leonidas, please.”

  Alejandro grunted. “Better see if Stanislav is alive and can come visit him.”

  Alisa slumped in her seat. “That coma again?”

  “I’m running tests now, and he did receive some injuries, but his armor mostly protected him from physical wounds. I don’t see evidence of an actual blow to the head. Not a physical one.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.” Alisa looked at the hull taking up the entire view screen display. She hadn’t heard from Stanislav since before Tymoteusz had died.

  “Did you bring back the staff?” Alejandro asked. He sounded like he was trying to be casual, but he didn’t quite manage. She could imagine him rubbing his hands together like a goblin anticipating hoards of gold.

  “Why, will that help Thorian with counseling?”

  “It might.”

  “Sadly, we weren’t able to recover it.”

  “Sadly. Right.”

  “Even if we had gotten it, the Alliance would just take it. They’re holding us right now, if you hadn’t heard.” Alisa frowned, realizing he had closed the channel before she finished speaking. “That man is not snuggly.”

  “No arguments from me,” Mica said.

  Alisa reached for the panel, intending to comm the warship herself. But an external channel lit up first.

  “Star Nomad, this is the Impervious,” a woman said in a clipped voice. “We are maneuvering to attach to your airlock. Prepare to be boarded.”

  “Well, since you asked nicely…”

  The channel closed.

  “Should I be offended that everyone is hanging up on me?” Alisa asked.

  “War makes people cranky,” Mica said.

  “Keep an eye on things, will you?” Alisa stood up. “I’m going to warmly greet whoever they send over.”

  “With weapons?”

  “I haven’t decided yet.”

  The idea of fighting off a huge Alliance boarding party without Leonidas’s help made her tired. They’d killed the evil overlord. Couldn’t they be done fighting now?

  Knowing she had a few minutes before the airlock tube attached and the boarding party came over, Alisa turned toward Jelena’s cabin. She needed to give her daughter a hug and reassure herself that she was all right. Her cabin, however, was empty. Maybe she was with Thorian.

  Alisa headed toward sickbay, but had to pause in the mess hall when she spotted Beck with mixing bowls and pans out. He still wore his armor, everything save for his helmet and gauntlets, but he’d tied an apron around his waist.

  “Beck?” Alisa asked. “Whatcha doing?”

  “Heard about what happened to Thorian,” Beck said, grabbing a spoon from his utensil holder. “Figured the kid needs some brownies. But I’m keeping myself combat ready.” He pointed the spoon at his armored shoulder. “Just let me know if you need me to shoot at any invading Alliance soldiers.”

  “After the day the Alliance has had, they probably need brownies too.” Alisa headed for sickbay again, but paused before leaving the mess hall. “Are you sure the ingredients will be safe to use? Was anyone calculating how much radiation got through the Nomad’s hull while we were close to the rift?”

  “The ingredients are definitely safe. I put everything in the fridge as soon as I heard we were heading back this way.”

  “And the fridge protects things from radiation?”

  “It does now. I lined it with lead after the last time we tangled with radioactive ships.”

 
“Are you pulling my leg, Beck?”

  He saluted her with his spoon. “If you’re worried, just wait until you’ve had the brownies to take Doc’s cocktail.”

  Alisa supposed if Thorian had Starseer genes, he could probably handle a contaminated brownie or two. Her stomach rumbled at the thought of food. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten, but she might risk extra exposure in exchange for something chocolate.

  She found Leonidas lying on the exam table in sickbay with Alejandro frowning over the monitors he’d hooked up. He had been stripped from his armor and draped with a sheet, probably because of the young guests also in the room. Jelena was on the far side of the table, sitting cross-legged on the deck next to Thorian. He sat in a chair with his legs pulled up to his chest and a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Jelena had a netdisc out and was flipping through some display, showing things to him.

  “I’m mostly liking the kittens,” she informed him. “But these unicorn stickers are great. Doesn’t this look like the genetically engineered unicorn in that one Andromeda Android episode? The one she freed from a lab?”

  Thorian didn’t respond, but his eyes were at least tracking her movements. He still needed to be washed and given fresh clothing, but Alisa could understand why Alejandro hadn’t gotten around to that yet. She touched Leonidas’s leg through the sheet and looked at his still face. She thought about keeping herself to that touch, since Jelena was right there, but she couldn’t stop herself from moving up to his side for a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. He’d risked so much to get Thorian out of there and put an end to this staff nonsense. In the end, he hadn’t objected to the notion of destroying the artifact. After all, piloting the mining ship into the rift to get rid of the staff—and Tymoteusz—had been his idea.

  “Thank you,” she whispered in his ear, though she was sure he wouldn’t hear her. “For everything.”

  She patted his chest and turned around to talk to her daughter. Jelena was gazing up at her. Alisa smiled, hoping that Jelena wouldn’t choose that moment to again point out that Leonidas wasn’t Dad and shouldn’t be hugged and kissed.

  “I’m shopping for stickers, Mom,” she said.

  “Oh?” Alisa asked, surprised she had a decent connection this far out. Maybe she’d loaded a catalog earlier in their trip.

  “For his armor.” Jelena waved toward the exam table. “To make him less scary.”

  Alisa’s smile grew easier. “Good.”

  Thorian’s eyebrows drew together. “He’s supposed to be scary.”

  Alejandro turned at his voice. “That’s the first thing he’s said.”

  “Maybe he just wasn’t interested in whatever topics you were trying to discuss with him, Doctor.” Alisa ruffled Thorian’s hair, not caring if it was an appropriate thing to do to a prince. He looked like he needed a hug, but that seemed presumptuous. He barely knew her. Maybe later.

  “I didn’t know stickers were what one wanted to discuss after escaping a harrowing life-or-death situation.”

  “That’s because you’re not ten.” Alisa switched her hand to Jelena’s head. “Or eight.”

  “I’m almost nine.”

  “In two weeks,” Alisa said, surprised Jelena had kept track of the date during all the chaos of the past months.

  “Can we go horseback riding for my birthday?”

  “If the Alliance lets us go, we could make it to Upsilon Seven in time for that. What do you think, Thorian? Want to ride a horse? Smell some grass? Trees? Dirt?”

  He looked at Jelena, and they seemed to exchange some silent communication. Then he nodded at Alisa.

  “How about you, Leonidas?” Alisa patted him on the chest again. “Willing to wake yourself up to go horseback riding in a couple of weeks?”

  “He’s still too big,” Jelena said.

  “I’m sure we can find a horse that can handle him. You wouldn’t mind riding with him?” She probably shouldn’t push, but she found it promising that Jelena hadn’t batted an eye when Alisa hugged him.

  “He got Thor. Abelardus said so.”

  “Abelardus admitted that?” Alisa couldn’t believe Abelardus wouldn’t have taken credit for that, especially when she and Leonidas hadn’t been there to say otherwise.

  “Not at first, but then Thorian told us how Abelardus hid in the box with him while you and him fought.” Jelena waved at Leonidas.

  “Only because I didn’t have armor and wasn’t immune to Tiang’s devil drug,” Abelardus said, leaning into sickbay.

  “He said he’d get Thor and he did,” Jelena said, ignoring Abelardus’s intrusion. “And so did you.” Jelena stood up and hugged Alisa.

  Alisa returned the hug, fighting back tears. She reminded herself that they still had the Alliance to deal with. She couldn’t fall apart yet.

  “Your buddies are knocking at the airlock hatch,” Abelardus said. “Mica wasn’t sure if we were greeting them with weapons or kisses.”

  “I’d pay quite a bit to see you greet Admiral Agosti with a kiss.”

  “Young-hee might get jealous if I did that.”

  “I doubt it.”

  Alisa reluctantly let Jelena go. “Jelena, will you take Thorian and show him your cabin for a few minutes? We want to make sure the Alliance doesn’t know he’s here.”

  Thorian’s eyes widened, and he stood up quickly, shucking the blanket.

  Jelena shrugged, probably not understanding the ramifications, but she said, “Sure. I can show him more stickers.”

  “Good.” Alisa gave Alejandro a make-sure-they’re-not-here-if-the-Alliance-comes-through look, and he nodded in return.

  Once the children left sickbay, Alisa trotted down the stairs and to the airlock, certain the Alliance boarding party wouldn’t be pleased about being left waiting. She peeked through the window before opening the hatch, hoping to see Hawk’s face, but two big figures in combat armor stood at the front. She couldn’t see if anyone else was behind them.

  Sighing, she unlocked the hatch. Too bad Beck’s brownies weren’t done yet. She could use a bribe.

  The soldiers strode in, rifles in hand as they peered around the cargo hold. Only Abelardus was down there with Alisa—she hadn’t called Beck away from the mess hall—but he held his staff and squinted at them. Neither of the soldiers pointed their rifles at anyone.

  “Clear, sir,” one said.

  Senator Hawk walked out in the same civilian clothes she’d seen him in before the battle, but they were much more rumpled, as if he’d been sleeping in them, or perhaps been thrown around his ship in them.

  “Good to see you, sir,” Alisa said with genuine relief. He would, at least, be reasonable.

  Two more soldiers followed him out. A black-robed figure came at the end of the party.

  “Stanislav,” Alisa blurted, pleased since he could help Leonidas and also pleased that he had survived… just because.

  He walked over slowly, using his staff for support, the lines deep at the sides of his eyes. He faced her and smiled tentatively. “I know it’s no longer a horrible situation, but you can still use ‘Dad,’ if you like.”

  “Oh?” Since he looked like he needed a hug, Alisa stepped forward and gave him one. “I wasn’t sure what the rules were on that.”

  “No rules.” He sighed and leaned on her. If he hadn’t also had the staff to lean on, he might have collapsed.

  “I hate to ask you for help when you’re clearly exhausted,” Alisa said, “but can you take a look at Leonidas when you’re able to? I wouldn’t be here if not for him. None of us would.”

  “Of course,” Stanislav murmured, stepping back.

  “We’d also like to take the staff into custody,” Hawk said. “It will be locked away so it can’t be used as a weapon again, I assure you.”

  Stanislav’s eyebrows rose slightly, but he said nothing. He had to know it wasn’t here. In fact, he probably knew exactly where it had gone.

  “We don’t have it,” Alisa said. “It was on the m
ining ship when it went through the rift. We sent our android in a shuttle after it to retrieve it, but I guess the rift closed. I don’t know if he’ll be able to come back with it or not.”

  Hawk frowned and looked to Stanislav.

  “It may be true,” Stanislav said, spreading an arm. “Or it may have been destroyed in that explosion on the mining ship. I can no longer sense it.”

  Alisa kept her face neutral, certain Stanislav could see into her mind and knew exactly what had happened. Yumi’s drug had likely worn off by now. Still, even if he’d been working together with Hawk, he shouldn’t be more loyal to him than to his own family. Or so she hoped.

  “You’re sure?” Hawk asked.

  “Quite positive,” Stanislav said.

  Hawk sighed. “We’ll post a ship to guard that rift. Just in case your android returns with it.” He narrowed his eyes at Alisa, as if he was certain she wanted the ghastly thing.

  “If Bravo Six ever is able to return,” Alisa said, “please send him in my direction. I owe him an eye.”

  Hawk only looked puzzled at the statement.

  “Do you want us to search the ship, sir?” one of the soldiers asked. “She could be lying.”

  Panic welled in Alisa’s chest—if they searched the ship, they were sure to find Thorian.

  “Oh, I’m certain she’s lying,” Hawk said dryly. “But I believe Stanislav that the staff isn’t here.”

  “Er, yes, sir.” The soldier eyed Stanislav, appearing puzzled by the trust.

  It surprised Alisa too. Was Stanislav manipulating Hawk? Or had they come to an understanding of sorts?

  “Do you know if Tomich made it, sir?” Alisa asked, genuinely curious but also wanting to change the subject.

  “He’s fine. We’re arranging to recover him. He had an artful crash—did you see it?” Hawk smiled, but it was fleeting. “Even with his help—and with yours—we almost didn’t win this one.” He held her gaze. “It was close.”

  Though it didn’t seem right to show exuberance in the face of his graveness, Alisa couldn’t help but be pleased that he was acknowledging her team, that they had been useful, especially after he’d forbidden her to come. The Alliance could have chosen not to notice that the Nomad had fired that final deadly blow that had taken out Tymoteusz and his people.